Junya Ogawa, the representative of Nakamichi, announced today that Nakamichi will "split". (Excerpted from "Middle Way Reform Alliance" YT)
In order to fight against the Takaichi Sanae regime, Japan's opposition parties, the Cadet Democratic Party and the Komeito Party, formed the "Nakamichi Reform Alliance" (referred to as Nakamichi) to run for the House of Representatives election at the beginning of this year. However, the party split after only about eight months of formation. The Center announced today that former members of the Constitutional Party will form a new party, and all former members of the Komeito Party will return to the Komeito Party. However, all parties will still form a unified faction called the "Central Road" in the House of Representatives in an attempt to maintain their status as the largest opposition faction. This opposition integration, which can be called the Japanese version of "Blue and White", was described by the Japanese media as an "election mutual aid group" that put aside its ideas and policies. It was united by the election and torn apart by the defeat.
The Middle Road was established in January this year by members of the House of Representatives from the Constitution and Komeito parties. It originally planned to further recruit senators and local councilors from both parties after the election to create a "Central Road Alliance" ranging from moderate conservatives to liberals, forming a new axis against the politically conservative Takaichi regime.
However, in the House of Representatives election on February 8, the center suffered a disastrous defeat. The number of seats in the House of Representatives dropped sharply from 172 before the election to 49, including 6 proportional seats that were "picked up" due to insufficient nominations from the Liberal Democratic Party. After losing the election, the two Communist Party chairmen took the blame and stepped down. The morale of the entire party was at its lowest point, and the momentum for integration quickly faded. In particular, local councilors who were about to face elections were afraid to avoid it.
The three political parties, namely the Constitution, the Middle Road, and the Komeito, started merger negotiations in June, hoping to complete the integration before the interim parliament in the fall. However, by the end of August, it was announced that the idea of a three-party merger was broken.
Junya Ogawa, the representative of the Nakamichi, announced today that the Nakamichi will "split". Currently, there are 49 members of the Nakamichi House of Representatives, including 21 members of the Constitutional Faction and 28 members of the Komeito Faction. Most of the members of the Constitutional Faction will form a new party, and 28 members of the Komeito Faction will return to the Komeito Party. Zhongdao has temporarily left one council member to handle financial and other aftermath work, and it is expected to be formally disbanded within the year.
Since Nakamichi can receive a total of about 2.34 billion yen (approximately NT$480 million) in political party subsidies this year, there are currently about 1.17 billion yen that have not yet been collected. Nakamichi announced the separation but will not officially turn off the lights until the end of the year. It was also criticized for receiving this political party subsidy.
The core reason for the split in the middle is that although the parties can cooperate under the electoral goal of "fighting the Gaoshi regime," they have never been able to translate this goal into a common national line.
Japan's major newspapers rarely come up with quite consistent diagnoses. The Nikkei pointed out that the failure of the middle path was to "put policy discussions aside"; Asahi believed that the merger came first, and the policy as a rallying flag, as well as consensus on basic policies such as security and energy, were postponed; Yomiuri also pointed out that the members of the Constitutional Senate have a strong liberal color, and it is inherently difficult to integrate security policies with the Komei faction.
Sankei's criticism is more direct, describing Nakamichi as an "electoral mutual aid association" where ideas and policies are shelved. It believes that political parties should be composed of people with common political ideas and policies. If they only gather numbers to fight against the ruling party, they will eventually be divided.
